Comments Off on Episode 64 – Nimble Games – AKA A tiny show
We do another short show, catching up on Google Glass and the latest game from Nimble BIT Games. Michael M. has decided that 8-bit trains are a great way to understand logistics; while Michael R. enjoys meeting all the google-ites who hung out in Durham last week at the American Tobacco Campus. After last week’s show were we thought how you could use Google Glass for remote learning, Michael R. decides that it is not only possible, but that it makes a lot of sense with how it actually worked. The only disappointment about the Google Event was that he couldn’t give them lots of cash and actually buy a pair! We also talk about our Favorite Co-Host, who is still on vacation – We miss you Phaedra!!
Phaedra is out on a well deserved vacation, and the Michael’s spend time thinking about cyber punk novels and current technology. We fight thru a few audio hiccups, but still come in with some deep thoughts. Hanging out and talking about how William Gibson’s Neuormancer is starting to be a reality with some of today’s tech, including Oculus Rift, Google Glass, and smart phones.
But first we have to ask:
Can you teach yourself Kung Fu with augmented reality?
Are you ready for the Tree house of Horror!!!???!!!
Comments Off on Episode 62 – Gamification Carrots & Sticks
Phaedra and Michael M hold down the fort for the podcast, discussing the treatment of video games in the media in the wake of the tragic Navy Yard shootings and drawing some interesting thoughts on the nature of serious games to assist with mental health.
Gamifying Travel
They continue with a discussion on gamifying travel, and explore an idea where the game is to crowdsource the best travel options & prices between city pairs, setting up a competition to find the best solution using humans instead of algorithms. The suggestion for how to monetize this game brings up the experiment in Sweden with the speed camera lottery, where abiders (those who observe the posted speed limit) are entered into a lottery to win the fines of those that speed. As is their nature, Phaedra and Michael explore ways to game the game, and come up with some interesting solutions, including having an option in Waze to optimize travel routing to maximize entry into such contests and methods to avoid creating situations such as in Benson NC where people might cruise up and down the road in hopes of getting more entries in the lottery.
Gamifying work processes
Strava is a geolocation-based exercise game for runners and bikers that reward the fastest times on a stretch of road with a crown to be defended and won back, should someone best your time. Strava is used as a base to consider whether there’s a way to find a process that we want people to comply with, want them to execute as quickly as possible, minimize escapes by reinforcing abiders are put into a lottery to win something of value to them. The additional randomness of the reward – the carrot – may get more people to opt in and play. Figuring out what is meaningful to the player is key. How can gamification and serious games help people to adopt a new process with carrots and sticks? There is a game in there, we just need to tease it out. We would love to hear your ideas!
Phaedra will be a panelist on October 28th, at TransOvation (http://www.transovation.org) in San Jose, California, focusing on the theme of “New Technologies and Workplace Practices That Can Help Organizations Become More Innovative”
Both Michaels listen with rapt attention as Phaedra brings us all up to speed on the Future Workplace 2020 Summit Symposium that she attended this week past week, while teasing two upcoming events: CDC Games for Health and Women Gaming. We then take a quick left turn (that our phones notice due to the new m7 chip) around gaming our health with various sensors and devices. And then spin totally out of control thanks to LinkedIn and it’s game on cheating spouses.
We finally get back on track with a bit of tangible play examples based on the TechCrunch example.
